I am catching up with posting at-least-one-photo-a-day. I stopped on 21/3, the first day of spring. I worked long days, and if you add that to the unprecedented turbulence, I did not have the headspace to keep posting the photos I wanted to post. I am catching up this weekend. Some more photos from Cremona. The one you see is of the Bertazzola, the short loggia that connects the Torrazzo bell tower with the main body of the cathedral. It was built at the beginning of the XVI century. The architect is Lorenzo de Trotti.
I did not know whether to continue with this project, posting at least one photo a day on this blog. The coronavirus news are quite distressing and I was asking myself whether it makes sense to continue posting photos of places where I am travelling or where I travelled in the past. Earlier this morning, It did not seem something useful spending time on.
I live in Finland and I am following very closely how things are developing in Cremona, my hometown in Northern Italy which has been at the centre of this epidemic since its earlier stages. I remembered the photos I have taken over the years when going back to visit my family and friends.
So, I decided that what I am going to do over the next days or weeks is to look into my photos and search for the ones from Cremona, edit them into black and white, and post them here.
I do not know if I will have something to say every day. Anyways, this is for me a way for me to feel that connection with the city I was born as I follow the latest developments.
I need colours today. Here are some from Kathmandu.
The Stupa of Boudhanath, Kathmandu 2020
The Stupa of Boudhanath, Kathmandu 2020
The Stupa of Boudhanath, Kathmandu 2020
The Stupa of Boudhanath, Kathmandu 2020
At least one photo a day
The first stupa at Boudhanath was built sometime after AD 600, when the Tibetan king, Songtsen Gampo, converted to Buddhism. In terms of grace and purity of line, no other stupa in Nepal comes close to Boudhanath. From its whitewashed dome to its gilded tower painted with the all-seeing eyes of the Buddha, the monument is perfectly proportioned. Join the Tibetan pilgrims on their morning and evening koras (circumambulations) for the best atmosphere.
According to legend, the king constructed the stupa as an act of penance after unwittingly killing his father. The first stupa was wrecked by Mughal invaders in the 14th century, so the current stupa is a more recent construction.
The highly symbolic construction serves in essence as a three-dimensional reminder of the Buddha’s path towards enlightenment. The plinth represents earth, the kumbha (dome) is water, the harmika (square tower) is fire, the spire is air and the umbrella at the top is the void or ether beyond space. The 13 levels of the spire represent the stages that a human being must pass through to achieve nirvana.
I wander in these busy streets and ask myself where do the shop owners will put all the things they have hanging outside their shops. Is there enough space inside to put everything they display outside? I enjoy these buzzing streets. I watch people negotiating prices. Shop owners counting their revenue for the day on calculators. People stopping to chat or arguing about the quality of some fabric. It’s all very lively.
